Stovepipe



F. R. JACKES ET AL STOVE PIPE Jan. 15,1946.

Filed March 6, 1944 FIGQI.

Patented Jan. 15, 1946 Franklin R. Jackes, Ladue, and Sam Strano, St, Louis, Mo., assignors to J ackes-Evans Manufacturing Company, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Missouri Application March 6, 1944, Serial No. 525,224

. 4 Claims. (Cl. 138-70) This invention relates to stove pipe and with regard to certain more specific features to stove piie formed from cold-rolled steel sheets or the li e.

Among the several objects of the invention may be noted the provision of means for improving the appearance of stove pipe by a structural shape which reflects incident light in such a manner as to distract attention from inherent surface blemishes in the ordinary finish usedfor such pipe; the provision of a structuralshape of the class described which also improves the heating surface, and strength of the pipe; and which makes pipe joints between sections more reliable; and the provision of such means which will allow of shipment of pipe sections in substantially flat stacked condition, if desired, as distinguished from the substantially cylindric nested condition now employed, thus saving shipping expense, particularly for export. Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the elements and combinations of elements, features of construction, and arrangements of. parts which will be exemplified in the structures hereinafter described, and the scope of the application of continuous web and the sheets are cut from the web so that their dimensions, which later become the lengths of pipe sections, are crosswise with respect to the web. This places the grain of the sheet metal stock girthwise of the resulting pipe. This arrangement is mechanically dewhich will be indicated in the following claims.

In the accompanying drawing, in which are illustrated two of various possible embodiments of the invention, 1

Fig. 1 is a developed flat sheet showing a first p;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the sheet of Fig. 1 shown lightly curled for substantially flat stacked export shipment;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a straight length of stove pipe embodying the invention;

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic horizontalsection taken on line 44 of Fig.3;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary enlarged detailed section of a part of Fig. 4; and,

Fig. 6 shows the assembly of a straight length of pipe and elbow, the latter also being made according to the invention.

Figs. 1-4 and 6 are on reduced scale. Fig. 5

shows substantially the proper relationship be-- tween pitch of corrugations andradius of curvature.

Similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawing. 7

, Stove pipe is commercially made from sheet segments cut from a continuous web of coldrolled, thin sheet steel. The grain of the steel is longitudinal with respect to the length of the sirable because it places the grain at right angles to the edgewise lock-seam components which might crack during their formation, if the grain were parallel to the pipe length. The segments, after the seam components and the usual end swaging bulges have been made, are given a fairly shiny finish which it is intended shall provide a good appearance in the final pipe. However, the above-mentioned grain causes some variations in the finish where it follows the grain. The grain toward the edges of the ori inal web of steel is often different from the grain at the center and the result is that the ultimate pipe sections sometimes have variations of finish along their lengths which is undesirable in any string of pipe sections. Furthermore, bythe time that a pipe section has been formed and the lock-seams closed by the user, the surface has received marks and other blemishes. The invention at small cost provides means for rendering innocuous to the eye all or most of the abovementioned blemishes and gives a pleasing continuous streamlined appearance to a pipe section or string of pipe sections as finally set up.

The above ends are accomplished with added structural advantages. Ordinarily the sheet segments above-mentioned are precurled substantially into cylinders and shipped in nested groups. This is so that when sections are locked at their seams to form the ultimate pipe, the pipe will be round, instead of some odd section which occurs if attempts are made to roll up from fiat segments. Thus shipment of the stock must ordinarily be of nested, almost completely curled sections. If these could be shipped substantially fiat, particularly in the export trade, a considerable saving would be eifected in the volumes of large shipments. The present invention makes the hand formation (by the user) of round pipe, as reliable from substantially flat sheets, as it was heretofore from more completely curled lengths.

Other desirable advantages-of solving the appearance problem by the means herein described are that it also provides a better joint between sections.

Referring now more particularly to Fig. 1, numeral I indicates a cold-rolled sheet blank, the rain of which extends crosswise of the figure from left to right. The grain does not show on 1 thin.

An important feature of the invention is the special fine-pitch corrugated formation of the sheet parallel to the locking elements 3 and 5, as shown at numeral 1. These corrugations straight and regularly spaced and are constituted by relatively fiat longitudinal surfaces 9 joined at straight, longitudinal intersections it. The circumferential pitch distance P between intersection lines H is at least several times radial height h of the corrugations.

As indicated in Fig. 5, the diametral pitch of the corrugations is of the order of '20. Theterrn diametral pitch is herein to be taken in its usual sense of a certain number of corrugations D1 :c'ircular .pitch distances per inch of mean pipe 'diameter. It is of course to be understood that'this requirement of 20 d. p. needs to be met only ap proximately and, may be taken down as low as d. p. It may also be i'H'CIEaSEdabO'VE '20, buta limit is soon reached due to mechanical limitations in making fine-pitch corrugations.

The result is a series of long, thin, flat, plane strips formed the pipe at sharp angles to one another; which present elongate, facet-like surface stripes some of which reflect light at certain angles, and others of which -do not, thus giving the pipe on appearance of being sharply striped (see Fig. 3'). What particular strips reflect and what; ones do not, depends upon the incident light, but differential efiect occurs in any ordinary light. This longitudinal stripe 'efiect is so pronounced that any blemishes on the outside surface, due to variations in finish due to grain, blotching, or "handling are not noticed at 'allby collar 8 beyond swage 13 are crimped slightly more than those in the balance of the section. Thus when a pipe is formed as shown in Fig. 3 by rolling up the Fig. 2 blank and interlocking the lock 3 and 5, one end of a section will slip into the opposite end on the adjacent section. Heretofore slight corrugations have been used at the male endiot the telescopic end of a section but the female end on an adjacent section was uncor- Ingated. By means of the present invention there is a resilient meshing or interlocking efiect between two sets of corrugations at each joint between sections. At the same time an elastic grip is provided which makes the resulting joint ti hter.

It will be seen that the blank of Fig. 2 is substantially flat, though slightly bowed. When the pipe of Fig. 3 is formed up from this Fig. 2 form itisaccurately round as shown in Figs. 3 and 4 without efiort being taken by the assembler to form it so. In other words the stresses are so distributed by the corrugations, despite the peripheral grain that around result is automatically assured. Heretofore substantially flat sheets even when bowed somewhat could not be so used. This was particularly true in the case of peripherally grained pipe. It was necessary for the manufacturer to curl the blank permanently to almost I a cylindrie shape. By means of the present in-' the eye. In fact,thiseilect is sopronozmced' tlrat I when the pipe embodying the invention is placed next to a pipe without it, both having the same surface the latter 'by -*comparison appears to be somewhat defective. Thus thei'nverrtion provides =amuch improved and consistently good appearance without the care-necessaryto prevent sur f-ace blemishes.

numeral 1-3 in iFig. 2 ts shown a 'swagedportion which in the finished *pipe limits "the telescoping between ends of adjacent sections. This is --'directed -outwardon thefinishedpipe. At the time that the swage 1 3 is inser-te'd, the blanks ate-given a slightb'owas shown in Fig.8. This is for substantially hat export shipment The bow is inserted by suitable rolls. if desired, complete curling may. -be eifect'edsuh is-ordinarily used for :domestic shipments. "This would provide a substantially complete cylinder with un-- lockedseams adapted :to: be nested to'r :dornestic shipment andzfinalseam closure by th'e user. l' he invention is advantageous because the' mttterial required tor the'swage- 43 may be robbed from the corrugations, instead of from adjacent watts of th'ezpipe. Formerly the pipe had substantial. constrictions fadjacent each swage portion because of this robbing effect; whereas the pipeqof the invention does .not .need to have ithese consttictions itoarny substantial extent. ffl-Ioweven' if desiredeaswagezmayibe nsedihaviirgsa constrin- It is to be understood that the corrugations in vention the peripheral grain is so broken up by the narrow longitudinal corrugations that a true circular effect is easily obtained 'upon rolling up the sheet. Thus the present invention allows the manufacture of corrugated substantially flat segments instead of in the old cyl-indric form. It is to be understood however that the invention may be made *for shipment in old cylindric form if desired instead of the substantially fiat form of Fig. 2. Fonsmalldomestic-shipments the shi pping cost saving in- =fa-vor of the Fig. 2 form not so great, but for export shipments it is great.

The corrugations '9, H may be placed in the Fig. 1 metal blank by means-of rollers which are operative before any of the other elements 3., '5 or ts are-formed.

6 shows a straight length of pipe s telescoped I at its left-end with 'an elbow -L. This elsbow also carries similar corrugations it which follow the curve of the elbow. "These corrugations are placed in the rectangular blank -from which the elbow is made before this blank-is otherwise processed. After the corrugations i5 have-been inserted into the-"blank, a 'cylindenis made. Then the usual neep ounded --peri-pheral corrugations I! are inserted at illl degrees-(isoclinaD to the corrugations $5. corrugations' 41 are deep and allow ofthe' usual outside stretch and bending of the cylinder to dorm the elbow as indicated. In other .words, the deep peripheral corrugations I 1 act in theusua hway asa bellows, allowing bending of the icylinder i rom which theelbow made. 'Eur'ing the bending process, the fpratiously :applied corrugations 1 5' become curved as indicated. Asshown in the-zdrawing, the appearance offthe. corrugations tfi traversi-ng the corrugations H that not extensions of the corrugations-$9, ilfl fthe :adjacentstraight pipe section. Wherever the corrugations l5 andi' lfl cross, their tangeittsare perpendicular- No swagedmortionsiare mecessarynnn theselbpwcsince the endwise members of corrugations'it l tionma limitzto etelescnpingginzthe 2213561199. of .agswage 3| 3 on an adjacentifemalersectioneend. .iinzhigan :a swageelflr on an-iadi'acent section-ecnd limits nee- An added advantage of the invention'is that the heating surface of the pipe is increased, and since the ordinary stove pipe has about two times the heating surface of the stove with which it is connected, the gain is substantial.

It should be noted that the shallow depth of the corrugations 9 and I prevent undue stretching at the telescoping joints between sections, such as would be the case with deep corrugations.

Since the corrugation of a substantially fiat sheet which is shown in Fig. 2 results in imparting to the sheet the property of its automatically assuming a circulariorm when rolled up to form a stove pipe, the intermediate product such as shown in Fig. 2 is of importance.

In view of the above, it will be seenthat the several objects of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results attained.

As many changes could be made in the above constructions without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

We claim:

1. A stove pipe comprising a flexible metal sheet adapted readily to be bent into a substantially true circle by manual means only, said sheet having relatively narrow longitudinal corrugations therein of diametral pitch of the order of not less than 15.

2. A stove pipe comprising a flexible metal sheet adapted readily to be bent into a substantially true circle by manual means only, said sheet having relatively narrow longitudinal corrugations therein of diametral pitch of not less than 15, the inherent grain of the metal sheet being peripherally disposed and substantially at right angles to said corrugations.

3. A stove pipe comprising a flexible metal sheet adapted readily to be bent into a substantially true circle by manual means only, said sheet having longitudinal corrugations therein of diametral pitch of the order of not less than 15, said corrugations each consisting of two elongate flat areas angularly connected, the circular pitch distances between corrugations being substantially greater than the radial depths thereof.

4. A stove pipe comprising a flexible metal sheet adapted readily to be bent into a substantially true circle by manual means only, said sheet having narrow longitudinal corrugations therein of diametral pitch of the order of not less than 15, said corrugations each consisting of two elongate flat areas angularly connected, the circular pitch distances between corrugations being substantially greater than the radial depth thereof, and the inherent grain of the metal sheet being peripherally disposed and substantially at right angles to said corrugations.

FRANKLIN R. JACKES. SAM STRANO. 

